Saturday, October 2, 2010

As the nation prepares for 31st October 2010 Voting , I want to join the likes of Dr W P Slaa , Prof Haruna Lipumba and many other concerned Tanzanians to call for concerted efforts to stop CCM leadership at the National Level in 2010. I say this because I know that throughout history the only thing that is permanent is change, and if there is any time in the nation’s history that we need that change, I think it is now. The change that we need is possible to reposition this country to let the world know that we are a serious people. For almost 50 years we have been promising our people a better life and for 50 years better life has eluded Tanzanians. We asked for bread they gave us stones. We asked for fish they gave us serpent. We asked for joy they gave us tears and sorrows. We asked for water they gave us blood. We asked for cloths they gave us rags. We asked for houses they gave us huts. We asked for life they gave us deaths. Hope they said is no hope when we have to wait till the end of the world. No, no, we cannot just continue to wait idefinitely.

There are compelling reasons why Tanzanians must stop CCM at the Union level in 2010. They are as follows:

• Non-performance. Putting into consideration the resources that have passed through the hands of the Union government controlled by CCM and what is on ground in terms of development in the past 15 years, I need nobody to convince me that CCM has failed woefully in the delivering democracy dividends to Tanzanians. We do not have power to power our economy, our education system is down, our economy still Agricultural driven, our hospitals mere consulting clinics, our infrastructure has collapsed, no jobs for our teeming graduates, no security etc.

• Need to sustain democracy. Tanzania operates a Multi-Party system and allowing a Party to be in power for 15 uninterrupted years is dangerous to the growth of democracy. Even if CCM has done well in the past 15 years there is need for change of leadership just to sustain democracy. For the sake of change in the United State, President Obama beat George Bush. Prime Minister David Cameron beat Gordon Brown in Britain.

• The need for generational shift. Having tried men in their sixties and seventies at the presidency I think time has come to get the young people in their 40s and 50s to be in the saddle. Young people are full of fresh ideas and new impulses. They are full of energy and drive to get results. We must give them a chance.

• We to avoid One-Party State. African countries have been ravaged and devastated for years by the ruler-ship of one political Party.One party state leads to corruption and dictatorship, leads to crisis, it leads to wars, it leads to bloodshed, and it leads to disintegration.

• Free & fair elections. The only way Tanzania can have free and fair election from local governments to the Union level is to send CCM packing. This rigging machine, their nest of killers, this house of fraud, this shrine of corruption must be stopped by all means if we have to get things right. Rigging brings in mediocre and clueless touts in exalted positions in Tanzania and when this happens your guess is as good as mine.

• Need to rebuild our collapsed institutions. Having been in power for 15 years with little or nothing to show for it, if you give CCM another 15 years they may never get it right. You cannot give what you do not have. Destroyers can never be the builders. We need committed men and women of substance to rebuild our battered and decayed institutions.

• Need to stop the next of killers. Rogue politicians in CCM are vicious, desperate and dangerous. They forcefully remove anything or anybody that stands on their way to power. They are reckless ,This party must go.

• Change is possible. We need to have the power to change leadership in this country anytime we want to. Power must reside with the people. The rigging machine called CCM says they will rule Tanzania for 60 years whether we like it or not. This is arrogance, this is an insult, this is intimidation and we must use our collective will to stop them. No power on earth is bigger than the decency of the human spirit. Change is permanent, change is natural, and change is possible.

• Need to forestall ethnic politics. CCM thrives on ethnic politics and primordial sentiments. They divide the nation in order to continue to ‘win’ elections. Diversity which is supposed to be a plus for Tanzania has become a curse and an albatross because CCM must remain in power by all means. Now ethnic politics must take the back seat. Our plurality must be exploited to give the desired result as we have seen in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Switzerland, Britain etc.

A school of thought says ‘it is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense’ CCM has no common sense to continue to rule Tanzania. We must stop the Party.